January 24, 2019 New Event Result

The 2019 tour kicked off in Tel Aviv, Israel this past weekend. The inaugural edition of the Tal Aviv Grand Prix hosted 373 competitors from 53 countries. Of those competitors, 17 were American.

Team USA took three 7^th place wins.

Day One

Adonis Diaz (-60kg) started the first round with a bye and won his first preliminary match of the day against Daniel Ben David of Israel, sending him to the quarterfinals. There he fell to Jorre Verstraeten of Belgium which sent him to Repechage. There he faced Russia’s Sakhavat Gadzhiev and ultimately fell in a competitive match. Adonis would finish in 7^th place at Tel Aviv.

Angelica Delgado (-52kg) also started the first round with a bye and came up victorious in her preliminary match over Gulnoza Ziyaeva of Uzbekistan in just 55 seconds! In the quarterfinal she fell to Andreea Chitu of Romania. In Repechage, she faced Fabienne Kocher from Switzerland and ultimately fell there as well, earning her a 7^th place finish.

Day Three

After earning a first-round bye, Colton Brown (-90kg) won his first preliminary match over Viktar Kliavusau of Belarus. In his second preliminary match, he won by ippon in just 32 seconds over Arsen Khandzhian or Armenia. In the quarterfinal, Colton fell to Nicholas Mungai of Italy to send him to Repechage where he faced #6 world-ranked, Mammadali Mehdiyev of Azerbaijan. After falling there, he earned a 7^th place finish on the day.

The next stop on the IJF Tour is the Paris Grand Slam on February 9-10.